4WDs: Have your say

NSW Transport Minister spokesman Phillip Kelly said today the question was too silly to even contemplate.

"It just strikes me as too silly," he said.

But Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby said the NSW government should be considering how to keep 4WDs off the roads altogether, not just in the city.

"These machines are killing people and there is nothing silly about thinking about how to get them off the roads. ");document.write("

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"They are too big for the city. They are taking up more and more space, creating more and more injury and all politicians are turning their backs on them because the issue is getting too big to handle," he said.

He said one idea was to require a higher toll for any vehicles weighing more than 1.5 tonnes, as well as a special licence that must be obtained by the driver of any such vehicle. He also said there must be an increase in tariffs, taxes and insurance premiums on 4WDs.

The NRMA says it will not
consider increasing 4WD
insurance premiums
despite recent findings
that such vehicles are
involved in 85 per cent
more fatal death crashes.

NRMA Injury
Prevention Manager Pam
Lester said the NRMA
was considering the
findings but had no plans
to increase premiums.

``We are certainly looking
at this with interest. Any
piece of research such as
this which gives us an
indication of which
vehicle or who might be
at risk of injury is
certainly of interest to
us.''

Nor were there any
proposals for increasing
green slips for 4WDs, Ms
Lester said.

The Australian
Transport Safety Bureau
(ATSB) research found
the incidence of fatal
4WD crashes increased
by 85 per cent between
1990 and 1998, while the
incidence of all fatal
crashes went down by 25
per cent.

The proportion
of 4WD fatal crashes
increased from 5 to 12
per cent over that time,
the findings said.